Overshadowed by the tall trees which stood
close around it, an 'ornamental water' had been constructed by Swann's
parents but, even in his most artificial creations, nature is the material
upon which man has to work; certain spots will persist in remaining
surrounded by the vassals of their own especial sovereignty, and will
raise their immemorial standards among all the 'laid-out' scenery of a
park, just as they would have done far from any human interference, in a
solitude which must everywhere return to engulf them, springing up out of
the necessities of their exposed position, and superimposing itself upon
the work of man's hands. And so it was that, at the foot of the path which
led down to this artificial lake, there might be seen, in its two tiers
woven of trailing forget-me-nots below and of periwinkle flowers above,
the natural, delicate, blue garland which binds the luminous, shadowed
brows of water-nymphs; while the iris, its swords sweeping every way in
regal profusion, stretched out over agrimony and water-growing king-cups
the lilied sceptres, tattered glories of yellow and purple, of the kingdom
of the lake.
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